Sixth Global XBRL Academic Competition 2005-2006
Sponsored by: The institute of Management Accountants ( IMA) Bryant University and University of Hartford
Taxonomy, Application Development, and Research
Intent to Submit Form deadline November 15, 2005, final projects due March 15, 2006. See details below
A new digital language for business reporting is here - and you and your students can be part of it. XBRL - the
eXtensible Business Reporting Language - is a new language to express financial reporting and other business
reporting information - for the Internet ... and beyond.
XBRL International member organizations support the Sixth Global XBRL Academic Competition for students
concentrating in accounting, accounting information systems, finance, information sciences and related fields.
Student teams advised by faculty will have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of accounting, AIS,
finance, and information sciences and related fields to:
1
2
Develop working taxonomies (see definition below) for a particular industry, country, or an extension
taxonomy for a specific area of financial reporting, along with example instance documents.
Create software applications that use XBRL or XBRL GL (explained later), real world XBRL applications,
cases, and application of XBRL in web services, or
3
Produce original research in how XBRL and XBRL GL fit into the business, social and political
environment. Also accepted will be research on how XBRL contributes to continuous reporting and
continuous assurances,
XBRL and XBRL GL and information security assurances and web services,
XBRL and regulation, XBRL and accounting standards, XBRL for regulatory reporting,
XBRL and data level assurances on financial and non-financial information, and
XBRL GL for internal reporting
The purpose of the Sixth Global XBRL Academic Competition is to provide a unique opportunity for students
and their faculty advisors to participate in the development of the future of business and financial reporting
modeling for the Internet and their work to be recognized by the international community. This opportunity is
open to all students and faculty advisors in accounting, accounting information systems (AIS), finance,
information sciences and related fields.
The Sixth Global XBRL Academic Competition provides you and your students with an opportunity to
participate in the development of these specifications. Please see award winning students projects from prior
years at www.XBRL.org or web.bryant.edu/xbrl
Three Contest Categories
There are three categories that student teams can participate:
I.
XBRL industry specific taxonomy development – all countries (XBRL jurisdictions)
2005-2006 Global XBRL Academic Competition
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II.
III.
Application development - XBRL and XBRL GL in action, especially applications that create or
use sets of XBRL tagged financials statements that are comprehensive both in terms of breadth (e.g.
covering an important sector within a given country) and depth (exploiting the extensive detail
coverage in published XBRL taxonomies).
Research studies: business cases, teaching cases, critiques, papers – identifying challenges and
opportunities
Category I: Taxonomy development ( IAS and US) IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards)
A taxonomy is a complete representation of the concepts necessary to express the terms for a particular
financial or business document or area along with detailed identification of the underlying authority for each
reporting item. For example, the taxonomy released by XBRL International represented the financial concepts
contained in a financial statement issued by a commercial and industrial (C&I) firm in the United States
according to US General Accepted Accounting Principles. Students will examine existing taxonomies (see
www.XBRL.org), read about their creation, and develop a taxonomy that represents another jurisdiction or
country, another industry segment, or another area of internal or external reporting responsibilities. Students
will be judged on the following deliverables:
 A partial or complete taxonomy file for a jurisdiction or industry sector in XML schema format; also in a
standard database or spreadsheet format to demonstrate to judges how the taxonomy is mapped to the
industry convention.
 A document explaining which jurisdiction or industry sector has been chosen and why, and offering the
authority behind the elements included in the taxonomy. Be sure to clearly identify all source materials
used in developing taxonomies. Format should be Microsoft Word 97 (or higher).

All competition entry files needed to fully explain, demonstrate, and document your official entry.
Incomplete entries will not be considered.

Taxonomies must be accomplished by at least one valid sample instance document illustrating the use of
the submitted taxonomy in practice.

It is required that financial taxonomies and software applications should be in compliance with
XBRL Spec v2.1, See www.xbrl.org on Specification 2.1.
Category II: Application development
Students whose skills include programming are encouraged to participate by developing tools or models for
XBRL and XBRL GL.
Examples may include:
 Web-based instance creator;
 Financial statement generator;
 Web service applications featuring business reporting;
 Tools for financial analysis;
 XSLT automation tools.
 It is required that financial taxonomies and software applications should be in compliance with
XBRL Spec v2.1, See www.xbrl.org on Specification 2.1.

Taxonomies must be accompanied by at least one valid sample instance document illustrating the use of the
submitted taxonomy in practice.
See past award winning application developments projects at www.XBRL.org or web.bryant.edu/xbrl. Please
note that judges assess the contribution of each submission to encourage NEW students to learn and use
XBRL, and NOT by comparing it with the past prize winners.
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Students will learn to work with XML in general and XBRL in particular and apply their knowledge of
accounting, finance and management information systems to creating useful programs.
Deliverables for the above category include: a CD containing all relevant files, a document explaining the
installation procedures and all programs needed to run your application, including a User’s Guide, a set of
sample data with results, and detailed instructions. Also, submit a page (in Microsoft Word format) explaining
the usage of the application and why it is useful and significant. To facilitate the judging process, please have
all the above also available on a password protected website, housed by the project team. Do not disclose or
give access to this site to the public until after the competition judging period ends on April 20, 2006.
Category III: Research study
Students who wish to consider the impact of XBRL on business, regulation, politics and society may wish
to write original research papers about XBRL including : business cases, teaching cases, critiques, papers –
identifying challenges and opportunities
Examples include:





XBRL and XBRL GL acceptance in Asia, Europe,
Africa, North America, South America, Australia
and New Zealand
XBRL and continuous reporting
Using XBRL GL for internal business reporting
The role of XBRL in government reporting
Critical Assessment of XBRL

What will drive international acceptance of
XBRL?




XBRL and continuous assurance
XBRL’s potential impact on stock market analysis
XBRL’s potential impact on health care reporting
How XBRL would help the IFRS adoption
Research papers should be at least 4,000 words, not including supporting materials, graphics and appendices.
We will only accept a maximum of two research papers per faculty member. Submissions should be either on
CD mailed or via e-mail attachment to xbrl@bryant.edu and must be in Microsoft Word format. Selected
papers will be forwarded to appropriate journals for publication consideration.
XBRL Resources: Resource materials are updated frequently. Please visit www.XBRL.org and
http://web.bryant.edu/~xbrl for the latest information
Documentation
For all submission categories, documentation of the project must be submitted in Microsoft Word format.
Please note the judging criteria at the end of this application form. Proper documentation is an important part
of determining the quality of submission. If the documentation accompanying a taxonomy fails to explain in
detail the significance of the work, the process of developing or the underlying authority upon which it is based,
that project will be judged lower than submissions that do answer these important questions.
Judging
The judging team will include selected members of XBRL international community and faculty members from
colleges and universities world-wide. They will review submissions. Judges will evaluate submissions based
on the following criteria:
 Relevance (will this work help further XBRL development or acceptance),
 Completeness (will much additional work be necessary to take advantage of the results),
 Accuracy (is the information correct and reliable),
 Creativity (are the findings new or do they illustrate a novel approach to a problem),
2005-2006 Global XBRL Academic Competition
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


Significance (is this a significant contribution to the development and acceptance of XBRL, can it be
immediately incorporated into XBRL usage),
Use of and integration with existing taxonomies and the technical specification (will much work be
necessary to leverage the projects for use by the public), and
Documentation (is the work fully documented with resources identified, instructions for running
software, identification of underlying authority for the proposed taxonomy, etc.)
Student teams will be asked to sign a form stating that their submission is their original work. Every attempt
will be made to make the judging process blind review with at least two judges per submission. Finalists may
be asked to submit supplementary information in support of their project.
Awards
Students at all levels (undergraduate, Masters and Ph.D.) are encouraged to participate. There are two separate
divisions: undergraduate and graduate programs. The maximum number of grand prizewinners will be six, one
for each category in each division. Global XBRL Academic Competition reserves the right to not award a grand
prizewinner in a category. Depending on the number of high quality submissions, in each of the three contest
categories, winners will be recognized for undergraduate programs, and graduate programs. Other awards may
be given at the discretion of Global XBRL Academic Competition.
Depending on funds availability, grand prizewinners may be invited to the XBRL International meeting in 2006
to be honored and to present their findings. Please be advised that international travel requires a valid passport.
Depending on funds availability, a reasonable allowance for travel expenses to the awards meeting may be
given to cover costs of travel for one student representative and the faculty advisor for each grand prize team.
All expenses for developing and submitting the projects are the responsibility of the school and the team
members.
Terms and conditions
To be eligible, applicants must be registered students in an institute of higher learning, concentrating in
accounting, AIS, finance, information sciences or related disciplines in the 4th quarter of 2005. Ideally, a
student-team will consist of 2 to 5 students supervised by a faculty member. However, there must be at least one
student per faculty advisor in any given team. A full-time faculty member must sponsor each student team.
The faculty advisor may sponsor up to two teams for each category. If the faculty advisor has more than two
potential teams per category, we encourage you to hold an internal competition to determine two best
submissions to the competition. The extent and type of any consultation with any individual or organization
outside the team and the faculty advisor should be fully disclosed and documented in submitted materials.
Submitted material to the competition should be kept private until after April 20, 2006. All submissions and
correspondence must be in English and incomplete submissions will not be considered. All submissions should
be original, and not previously published (digital or paper) elsewhere. The decision of the judging team will
be final.
Doctoral Students: Doctoral students working on a dissertation in this and related areas are encouraged to
submit to the competition. Co-authorship (team membership) will not be required for doctoral students. A fivepage summary of the project/dissertation will be required from the finalist for posting to the Internet.
Taxonomies, application developments, and research papers developed during spring or summer 2005 semester
are eligible for the competition. Submissions to this contest will be considered a contribution to Global XBRL
Academic Competition. They will be used to further the development of eXtensible Business Reporting
Language and any further use of the materials will not be precluded. You will not receive any royalties or
income from Global XBRL Academic Competition for its use.
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Deadlines
The Intent to Submit Form for teams to indicate their intention to submit a project is enclosed. We encourage
the teams to meet and begin to work as early as possible. November 15, 2005 is the deadline for intent to
submit; however, earlier submissions are encouraged. Faculty advisors please complete the Intent to Submit
Form and e-mail it to the address below. Additional copies of the this form can be found at
http://web.bryant.edu/xbrl
All teams must also submit a report to xbrl@bryant.edu by December 6, 2005, indicating progress so far and
providing an updated roster including any changes. This must not exceed one page.
Final submission of the projects: The completed project with all required materials must be delivered on a CD
on or before March 15, 2006 to the address below. Winner(s) will be announced around April 20, 2006 at
http://web.bryant.edu/xbrl.
E-mail your request for more information to: sroohani@bryant.edu
To speak with someone about the project, call: +1 - 401-232-6168.
Or contact:
Saeed Roohani
Accounting Department
Bryant University
1150 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI 02917, USA
(401) 232-6168 or sroohani@bryant.edu.
If you would like to volunteer to be a contest judge or to help in other aspects of the Global XBRL
Academic Competition 2005-2006 please contact Saeed Roohani at (401) 232-6168.
The Global XBRL Academic Competition 2005-2006 organizers are not responsible for lost, late or misdirected
entries and reserve the right to cancel this competition at any time.
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Intent to Submit Form
Deadline: November 15, 2005
As a full-time faculty, I intent to participate in the Global XBRL Academic Competition 20052006 with a team of students.
Advisor Name:
Title:
Organization:
Address:
City
Phones
Department:
State
Fax
Graduate team ----
Undergraduate team ----
Category I --- Category II ----
Zip code
Country
e-mail
Category III ----
Course name and course number ---------------------------------Please provide a summary (minimum of 50 words)
Names of Students
1-
2-
3-
4-
5-
I am also committed to send an updated roster of students working on the above topic, along
with one page summary of accomplishments to xbrl@bryant.edu by December 6, 2005.
See Global XBRL Academic Competition 2005-2006 judging form attached.
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Global XBRL Academic Competition Judging Form 2005-2006
For more information about the Academic Competition: web.bryant.edu/xbrl
Judging Form
Project #
Category:
 Taxonomy
 Application Development
 Research Study



Competing at the Undergraduate level 
Category I ---
Category II ---
Judges Name:
Address:
E-mail:
Graduate Level 
Category III ---
Please review all attachments (text and programs) and use the following criteria to make your assessment of the project.
The ranking scale is 1-7: (1 is the lowest rank…….. 7 is the highest rank). For additional comments on each item, please
either use a blank page at the end or insert your comments in this form.
Relevance: will this work help further XBRL development or acceptance
Lowest 1
2
3
4
5
6
7 Highest
Completeness: will much additional work be necessary to take advantage of the results
Lowest 1
2
3
4
5
6
7 Highest
Accuracy: is the information correct and reliable
Lowest 1
2
3
4
5
6
7 Highest
Creativity: are the findings new or do they illustrate a novel approach to a problem
Lowest 1
2
3
4
5
6
7 Highest
Significance: can it be immediately incorporated into XBRL usage
Lowest 1
2
3
4
5
6
7 Highest
Use of and Integration: with existing taxonomies and the technical specification (will much work be necessary to conform
the project to what has already been delivered.
Lowest 1
2
3
4
5
6
7 Highest
Documentation (is the work fully documented with resources identified, instructions for running software, identification of
underlying authority for the proposed taxonomy, etc.)
Lowest 1
2
3
4
5
6
7 Highest
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Would you recommend this project for the prizewinner? If Yes, please briefly indicate why (attach another page if needed).
All materials provided to you are confidential and may not be used in any form or shape without written permission from the
authors or Global XBRL Academic Competition. In addition, please do not share the web site materials or research papers
with others. Thank you.
2005-2006 Global XBRL Academic Competition
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